Technology that can help manage and save your time

If you often wonder where your time went at the end of the day, you probably need to change the way you work and organise your life. Hitesh Raj Bhagat & Karan Bajaj show you the tools you need to get started.

GADGETS

LIVESCRIBE ECHO (Rs 11,990)

Another device to save time for those who write a lot, Livescribe's Echo is a pen that digitally records whatever you write — but it also records audio in sync with those notes. You can easily transfer saved notes and audio to a computer via USB cable or plug in earphones to the pen itself. The only catch is that it can record what you write only when used with a special type of paper/notepad.

BOOGIE BOARD RIP (Rs 6,290)

If you write a lot of paper notes and then spend time transferring them to a computer, get a Boogie Board to save both time as well as paper. It has a 9.5-inch LCD writing display which you can use to jot notes on using a stylus. The screen can be erased instantly and it can hold up to 200 notes that can be transferred and viewed on a computer quickly.

PORTRONICS CHARGER X (Rs 2,999)

This portable charger is helpful when you dont want to waste time waiting for your device to charge — just keep it in your bag to keep multiple devices charged on the go. It has a 5,600 mAh battery inside — good enough to charge a phone up to three times. A 30-pin Apple connector and micro USB connector is included in the price and it lets you charge two devices simultaneously — thanks to dual USB ports. It also has a battery indicator & LED flashlight.

APPS

EVERNOTE

Available across multiple desktop and mobile operating systems, Evernote saves you time by taking text, audio, picture notes that you create or 'clippings' from any website and then keeping them synced across all your devices. You can save stuff for later reading, collate information from multiple places, plan a vacation or anything else that takes up too much time. It also lets you share and collaborate on notes with your contacts.

WUNDERLIST

Wunderlist is a task management app that lets you create multiple lists & tasks. Lists are automatically synced on multiple devices (it is available for various desktop & mobile operating systems) and it can show reminders and notifications for upcoming or pending tasks. Lists can be shared via email, social networks or by using Wunderlist's own Cloudapp feature that generates a unique link for the shared list.

CAMSCANNER

This free app for Android and iOS lets you take pictures of documents and then converts the photo to a PDF — saving you from the hassle of scanning a document to make a digital copy. The app uses advanced image processing to auto crop and enhance the document before saving it as a PDF. It even supports multi-page documents & allows you to share PDFs via mail or by uploading them to a cloud storage service.

QWIKI

An iPad only app, Qwiki reduces time spent in searching the web by combining relevant text, images, infographics and videos in an easy-toview format. The app even narrates the relevant parts and lets you control the speed at which the information is presented. You can view topics categorised under various headings or in a worldwide map highlighting various geographical locations.

WEBSITES

TOGGL.COM

Toggl helps you track what you do by clearly listing out tasks and the time spent on each task. You can then generate reports with details about which activity is consuming more time and manage it better. The free account lets you track and manage activities for up to five people.

HOOTSUITE.COM

With HootSuite, you can post simultaneously to five different social networking sites from a single dashboard — saving time spent in visiting each website for posting updates. To add more networks and analytics reports, you can get a paid subscription for US$ 5.95 per month.

30BOXES.COM

At 30 Boxes, you can create and maintain a personal online calendar. Manage your life better by adding reminders, notes and todo's along with their start/stop time as well as details such as notes or search tags. There is also an option to add an event across multiple dates. Once you add an event, you can also invite your friends to it and set up a reminder for the event. If you already maintain events in Outlook or Yahoo, there is an option to import the data into the online calendar. The one limitation is that you can only share an entry with up to 30 people. The calendar can be accessed and updated from a PC or a mobile device — saving time on searching for or remembering details of multiple events.